


The Haunting of Schattenhaus Estate

by Benjamaru



Series: Shadows of Loss [2]
Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Horror, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mild Gore, Paranormal Investigators, Post-Canon, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23268730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benjamaru/pseuds/Benjamaru
Summary: Luke is clean but life still has its hardships. He and Steve start investigating and writing about haunted houses together, but it isn't long before they find something as sinister as Hill House.
Relationships: Luke Crain & Steven Crain
Series: Shadows of Loss [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672300
Comments: 9
Kudos: 43





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a loose sequel to 'Doors Sensibly Shut,' but I don't think reading that one first is necessary. Hope you enjoy!

### 1

Luke Crain had never felt comfortable being the center of attention, an anxiety easily avoided in childhood being one of five children and one half of a pair of twins. Time would see him parted more and more from his family, be it through distance, disagreement, or death they left and then he had only himself and his fears. Even after all the tribulations and ordeals he suffered through he never quite learned to handle being the object of anyone’s attention, not even his own. 

Today was Luke’s birthday, something he used to share but was now forced to handle on his own. This year he felt at ease, though, as it would just be him , his brother Steve and his family having dinner. He and his siblings had celebrated his second year clean recently and that was enough attention on him for the whole year. And besides his own insecurities, there was something he needed to discuss with Steve that would require some degree of privacy.

As Luke drove to his brother’s place he listened to a podcast to distract from his thoughts. The podcast was hosted by three brothers who intentionally gave comically unhelpful answers to questions their listeners sent in. It was clear to anyone who listened that the entire show was an excuse for the three of them to be together, even (or perhaps _especially_ ) if that meant doing something stupid. 

Luke noticed something odd as he pulled into the driveway of Steve’s house: none of the lights were on. _Shit, don’t tell me I got the time wrong_ , he thought as he pulled his phone and scrolled through his text log with his brother. _Nope, right on time_. He stared at the house holding darkness within for a moment, telling himself that it wasn’t that house and that there’s nothing to be afraid of, but Luke had long ago learned that thinking rationally did not always ease the mind. He drummed his fingers against the dashboard before deciding it was now or never and got out of the car and approached the front door. _Worst case scenario, Steve and Leigh are out of the house,_ he tried to tell himself, _a last minute errand is holding them up. Or maybe they’re in trouble, maybe Little Eleanor-_ he shook the thought from his head, he’d much rather focus on his own peril than imagine anything happening to his niece. Luke knocked on the door and waited for a response, after a moment he knocked again and listened closely, it was faint but he swore he heard some kind of motion inside. _Oh shit, burglars?_ Luke tried the door and to his dismay it was unlocked. _Fuck, Steve, how long have you lived in LA?_ He swung open the door, ready to confront whatever unsavory types had tried to rob the place but was instead nearly blinded by the lights suddenly coming on.

“SURPRISE!” His siblings, _all of them_ , shouted in as they jumped from their hiding spots in unison. 

Luke stood there, flabbergasted, as he watched his family swarm in for a group hug. “Jesus Christ, guys,” he said with a frustrated laugh, “you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

### 2

A surprise party with all his siblings was probably the last thing Luke would have asked for, he couldn’t help but felt guilty for all the time they made for him, especially Shirley and Theo for flying in from across the country. Though he knew that he wouldn’t have enjoyed the night half as much if things had gone the way he expected, and his siblings seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. Steve and Leigh were exhausted, most likely from the baby, yet were determined to have a good time; while this had been Steve’s idea, Shirley had taken over the planning and none too subtly pleased to see everything go smoothly; and Theo never needed an excuse to party but would gladly take one when offered. 

All good things come to an end though, as they lost their steam Shirley began to assign sleeping arrangements, yet another duty she had appointed herself.

“Me and Theo can take the couches, Luke gets the guest room-“

“Yeah about that,” Steve said awkwardly, “we kinda don’t have one of those anymore, that’s Little Nell’s room now.”

“Oh but let me guess, you kept the gym you’ve never used.”

Luke and Theo exchanged glances as they held back giggles. It was nice to see their older siblings bicker harmlessly about things that don’t matter for a change after years of being at each other’s throats.

“First of all, you have no way of knowing whether or not I use it. Second, it's in the basement and I didn’t think that’d be a good place to keep a baby. You don’t make Jayden and Allie sleep in the morg. Or _do_ you?” Steve said in mock horror, earning him a playful punch on the shoulder.

“I’ll take the basement then,” Luke interjected, “you’ve got a couch down there right?”

“What, no, let me or Theo take the basement, we’re not gonna put you in the crypt on your birthday,” Shirley said.

“Technically it’s only his birthday for like, thirty more minutes,” Theo added helpfully, apparently not too keen on the idea of ending up in the basement herself.

“C’mon guys, I’m fine with the basement. I’m sure it’s a paradise compared to the bedrooms at the Sanderson Rehab Center,” Luke said as his brother came from the upper level, having left to get blankets for everyone while they talked.

“Well, that was an issue that wasn’t really an issue and didn’t need to be solved, but hot damn if we didn’t solve it. Nice work, Crains,” Steve said sardonically as he passed out blankets. 

“Alright, alright,” Shirley said as she took her blanket and picked a piece of furniture to be her bed for the night, “and by the way, Steve, I know you’re not using the gym because I whooped your ass in the arm-wrestling contest.”

“Wait, what?” Luke asked

“That’s right! Last time Steve came to visit we had a little tournament and Shirley got him down in like a microsecond!” Theo recounted through poorly contained laughter.

“Hey, in my defense I was drunk,” Steve protested.

“All of us were drunk, you wimp,” Shirley said, Luke could almost imagine Shirley sticking her tongue out to punctuate the tease but knew she’d never allow herself. Steve returned the taunt with a quick flash of the bird before patting Luke on the back.

“Alright, birthday boy, let’s get you situated,” Steve said as he led Luke towards the basement stairway. Ever since Luke’s misadventure with a dumb waiter at Hill House he found himself anxious whenever descending to a subterranean floor. The anxiety rarely deterred him, especially when he had company.

The basement of Steve’s house was on par with the other floors, a far cry from the dusty old cellar in Hill House (though a glance into the gym did reveal a damning layer of dust, _Shirley would be both delighted and disgusted by that_ ). The lower living room was small and cozy, and yet Luke found himself nervous. _Now was the time to ask if there was one,_ he thought to himself. As Steve finished setting the couch up for Luke he turned and gave him a hug before the two said goodnight, Luke was willing to let his plan fall by the wayside, _maybe it just wasn’t meant to be._ But before Steve had completely disappeared up the stairs Luke felt a cold hand on his back.

“Go,” A familiar voice insisted. Luke collected himself and went to catch his brother, who turned to him in confusion.

“Everything okay?”

“Uh yeah, yeah, it’s just I, uh, wanted to ask you something. I was gonna ask over dinner but I didn’t expect the girls to be around.” Luke paused, he could tell by looking at Steve’s face that he already got off on the wrong foot, he pushed on anyway. “I had this idea I wanted to run by you. I was thinking we could work together.”

“Work together? Like, write a book?”

“Yeah, y’know I’m between jobs and you travel alone a lot so maybe we could, I don’t know, team up?” Luke instantly regretted his word choice, _team up? What, like the fucking Avengers?_

“I mean,” Steve chuckled and rubbed his forehead, “shit, Luke. What kind of brother would I be if I dragged you into another haunted house after all the trouble we’ve gone through to escape the one we lived in?”

“Well you said that none of the places you’ve gone to were actually haunted, so worst case scenario it’s just really boring, right? Besides if we survived Hill House together we can take on anything right?” Luke gave a weak smile, he wasn’t lying but he felt like he was perhaps abusing the truth. Steve looked down and then up to the ceiling, contemplating.

“Tell you what, there’s a place I’ll be investigating next month. My publisher has high hopes but I’m pretty sure it’s just a creepy house with bad architecture. I’ll send you what I have on the place in the morning and if you feel like tagging along we’ll make a trip out of it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’ll be like old times, just Stevie and Luke.”

“Cool kids.” Luke smiled as one of the few fond memories from Hill House surfaced.

“That’s enough for tonight, we’ll talk more tomorrow. ‘Night bro.”

Luke went to the couch filled with relief, the whole thing had gone easier than he expected once he found the courage to ask.

“Thanks, Nellie.” He said to the dark room before sleep took him.

### 3

Luke had not expected to be given homework before his outing into the Godforsaken homes of the world, but in retrospect he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t. Steve told him to research the location they would be investigating: the Winchester Mystery House. Luke had a bad feeling just from learning that it was a Victorian mansion with a bizarre past. Allegedly, in 1884 a woman named Sarah Winchester started building the house in San Jose to appease the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles, and continued to add on to and modify the house until she could no longer do so.

“Seems like a weird demand for ghosts to make,” Luke said to Steve as they drove to their destination, “‘we will haunt and torment you unless you make the most fucked up house in America!’” he said in an over the top impersonation of a ghost.

“Yeah it’s a tough sell, even by paranormal standards, my agent is suggested doing another anthology and working it in.”

“So you don’t think we’ll get a whole book out of this?”

“Color me doubtful, but that’s the whole point of an investigation.”

“Speaking of that, if you didn’t believe in the supernatural for ninety-nine percent of your career, why buy all this?” Luke said, gesturing to the mountain of equipment crammed into the backseat. 

“Helped sell the image, honestly, but more than that you’d be surprised what kind of structural mishaps you can uncover with a thermal camera,” _A regular charlatan,_ Luke thought, “I didn’t always bring this much stuff though, ever since, well, y’know, I’ve decided to take this a bit more seriously.”

“Or you just decided to bring more because you could use me as cheap labor.” Luke said with a chuckle.

“You joke but lugging this stuff around is one of the hardest parts of the job.”

“Well, maybe if you actually used the gym..”

“Hilarious.”

A few hours later they pulled left off South Winchester boulevard and got their first good look at the house. If Luke had to pick one word to the exterior of Winchester Mansion it would be “busy,” and found himself not wanting to imagine what such a messy exterior portends, despite knowing he would be within its walls soon. A numb courage overtook him as he wordlessly assisted Steve in unpacking their things but feeling returned to him as they approached the entrance. He was half thinking of bolting when his brother clapped a hand on his shoulder and gave him an emboldening look, that was all Luke needed to feel brave again.

Luke had been expecting it to be strange but still was not quite prepared for the disorienting design of the interior. As he and Steve explored it began harder and harder to believe that this was ever meant to be anything except a fun-house, especially a place to live. At least at Hill House walls continued upright and bricks met neatly, here it looked as though the architect had decided what the next room would be by throwing darts blindfolded. The only saving grace Luke could perceive was that the house was at least well kept and cleaned. _Perks of being a tourist attraction, I suppose._

“So do we start with a séance or do we bust the ouija board out?” Luke joked.

“Not quite, let’s set up some night and thermal cams in the hot spots. After that we should try an EVP session.”

“A _what_ , now?”

“Electronic Voice Phenomena. There’s a theory that spirits’ voices can be picked up by electronic recording instruments.”

“Steve, did you forget that we’ve actually heard ghosts speak with our own ears, had entire conversations with them?”

“That was Hill House, who’s to say every haunting is the same?” Steve said with a slight air of defensiveness, “Besides, I want to record anything we might experience. Makes remembering it all a lot easier,” Luke shrugged, in his experience paranormal events were usually memorable enough on their own but he wasn’t about to tell Steve how to do his job. “how about a little divide and conquer? I’ll set up the west half, you take the east,” Luke nodded in agreement and the brothers went their separate ways.

Though the twisting halls of the mansion continued to vex him Luke found himself getting used to it. He began to liken it to a dog who would bark at you menacingly from a distance but would suddenly become docile, or even friendly, when approached. Once he had finished setting up cameras in the rooms marked on the map Steve had sent him he gave his brother the all-clear text and went to rendezvous, or he tried to at the very least. He kept seeing the same notable features despite being fairly sure he wasn’t going in circles, or were they the same? He backtracked and tried going a different direction but still found himself lost in the unfamiliar. 

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.” he counted as he felt anxiety rise within him. Just as he was about to start calling out for Steve, a shadow from an intersecting hallway startled him, a moment later Steve came from around the corner looking as exasperated as Luke felt.

“Christ, I already hate this place,” Steve said as he rubbed his brow.

“Did you have an encounter?”

“No, this place is just a bitch to get around. I swear I passed the same staircase five times.”

“Oh, thank God,” Luke said with a sigh, “I thought it was just me.”

### 4

“Okay, this is Steven Crain, with me is my brother, Luke, it’s 6:55 pM and currently we’re in the Blue Room of the Winchester Mystery House,” Steve said into his phone which was currently recording. Luke suppressed a chuckle as Steve continued, “this is allegedly where Sarah Winchester held séances, and much like her we hope to commune with the spirits tonight. Any thoughts before we begin, Luke?”

“Uh, yeah. I just want to go on the record that it’s fucking crazy that either of us would go into a room named after a primary color in a haunted house,” Luke said, laughing at the absurdity of the statement. 

Steve’s eyes went wide before he laughed,“oh shit, I didn’t connect those dots.”

“Too late now.”

“Let’s get started then. Is there anyone in the room with us?” The brothers waited a moment in near silence.

“Any spirits who had it out for Mrs. Winchester?” Luke chimed in, though nothing answered him, “do you think we should do an actual séance with candles and shit?”

“I didn’t bring any, besides I think Mrs. Dudley would teleport over here and chew me out for it.” 

“Anyone here ever heard of Hill House? It’s also haunted but not quite as confusingly built,” Steve chuckled at Luke’s antics before looking at a list of prepared questions.

“Is Sarah Winchester here?” Steve asked and again was only met with the ambient noises of the house.

“This started feeling real silly real fast.” Luke said with the awkward grin of someone who's been holding in laughter.

“Just remember, this is for science.”

“Oh right, my bad, here, let me put on my serious face,” Luke did his best to appear gaunt and joyless, prompting an immediate burst of laughter from Steve, “this house is very different in the night… _in the dark!”_

“I think we’re done here,” Steve said through laughter as he ended the recording.

A few hours after their anticlimactic EVP session and more wandering through the halls, the brothers got to their sleeping bags and retired for the night. And though the mansion creaked and moaned sleep came without issue. 

Something stirred Luke, he opened his eyes to see the room brightly illuminated with moonlight. He turned to see if Steve had also been roused by the sudden light but he was no longer there, nor his sleeping bag, and as Luke’s eyes adjusted he began to doubt whether or not he was even in the same room he fell asleep in. Finally Luke forced himself to look towards the window to see the moon, though it was much bigger than it had any right to be. More fascinating, though, was a dark silhouette of a man sitting motionless in a chair; and though Luke could not make out any of the figure’s features he swore he could feel it looking at him. Suddenly the stench of blood hit his nose without warning, the sanguin scent stung his eyes, forcing them shut, and as Luke reeled from his senses overwhelming him he finally heard something: a voice. Though he thought it was the silhouetted figure’s he could not be certain, and he was much less sure of what it was saying. It seemed to be a chant that the speaker droned on and on without inflection or emotion but Luke could not understand _what_ was being said. Luke finally willed his eyes open and saw that he was on his knees, only a few feet in front of the silhouetted figure, closer now he could see that the figures eyes were eerie white orbs that mimicked the moon behind it. The murmuring had halted and all was deathly silent, the figure’s lips seemed to move as it spoke the chant one more time and this time Luke understood.

_“Fear the pale light.”_

Luke jolted awake as his brother nudged him with a foot.

“Woah there, you alright?” Steve asked.

“Uh,” Luke took a moment to look around the room, recognizing it as the one he went to sleep in, now safely illuminated with warm sunlight, “yeah, just had a weird dream is all,” Steve raised an eyebrow.

“Normal weird or ghost weird?”

“I don’t know. Can I take another look around?” Luke and Steve surveyed the house, checking all the rooms but none of them resembled the one in Luke’s dream, “was it a full moon last night?”

“Uh, maybe. I hadn’t really thought to check. Are you _sure_ you’re okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, maybe I was just more nervous than I was willing to admit.”

“If you say so. In any case, let’s pack up and hit the road. I think I’ve had enough of this fun-house.”

“Yeah, me too.”

### 5

A few days had passed since Luke and Steve’s visit to the Winchester Mystery House, much of which they spent reviewing the footage from there at Steve and Leigh’s place. It became rather disheartening around the fifth time Luke thought he found something only for Steve to look over and effortlessly debunk and explain it, and after the fifteenth time he decided to stop voicing any potential findings. Luke carefully examined the both the night vision and thermal cam footage from the room they slept in several times, looking for any sign of something happening to him, a temperature drop in the air around him, a ghostly figure walking past him, a hag sitting on him, anything, but instead all he saw was him turning in his sleep. 

“Anything from the EVP?” Luke asked boredly as he watched footage of a speck of dust float from one side of the room to the other.

“Oh right, forgot about that,” Steve said as he got his phone out, “guess it’s good for a laugh, if nothing else,” he hit play and for a while everything was normal, right until after Luke’s impression of Mrs. Dudley; at which point the ambient static seemed to grow exponentially for the remainder of the recording. Silence hung between them as they exchanged baffled looks.

“What the fuck?” was all Luke could say to break the tension.

“No idea,” Steve said as he rubbed his eyes and examined the screen of his phone, “the wave form doesn’t match up with that at all," Steve rewound the audio back to the end of Luke’s bit and once again noise blared from the phone’s speakers, this time something caught Luke’s ear.

“Again.”

After several listens it became more and more undeniable what Luke heard buried in the static, as much as he didn’t want to.

_“Fear the pale light.”_


	2. Spiegel und Fenster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crain brothers discover another location to check out, the distorted Schattenhaus Estate, and investigate whether it's genuinely haunted or just another tourist trap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. Things being as they are I didn't often feel like writing.  
> Speaking of the state of the world, I'm taking a queue from Dramaticirony and claiming this work takes place in a corona-free timeline. I hope you enjoy

### 1

“You can’t be serious!” Leigh said, rubbing her forehead, “Steven, a few years ago you tell me ‘turns out Hill House _was_ haunted, my family _isn’t_ crazy, and I feel ready to be a father and learn from all my mistakes.’ well what the fuck, Mr. Crain?” Luke rubbed his neck nervously and as he stared at the floor. He had expected this to be a contentious topic but did not expect Leigh to get quite so animated. Steve gave him a look that seemed to say _you should leave, I got this,_ and so Luke began to awkwardly side step towards the exit but Leigh’s attention snapped to him before he got so much as an inch away. “Oh no, you need to hear this too.” Luke froze and looked to his brother, who only gave him a sympathetic frown. “Steve, months ago you went back to a confirmed hell hole and nearly died! I was pretty understanding, I figured I didn’t need to make you feel any worse than you already did. Then you say you have another house you want to write about and I think ‘well, he’s fine, most of them are normal houses after all.’ and then you bring Luke along and he has a pretty chilling paranormal experience and you want to go back?”

It did sound rather stupid when Leigh said it. _Should have known Steve would marry someone as rational and level headed as he pretends to be._

“I know it sounds crazy but this could be another bestseller! If anyone should be scared it’s me,” _and I am scared, honestly,_ Luke thought as he tried to defend himself and Steve, “but we could do an actual investigation and we won’t just have to make shit up like Steve usually does,” Luke felt fairly confident at first, more than usual at the very least, yet championing him and his brother under the scrutiny of Leigh’s gaze was beginning to agitate his social anxiety and his nerve left him.

“If this is about money we can write you a check, Luke, and we already have everything we could ask for right here, Steve. I’m not going to watch the father and uncle of my child risk being swallowed up by some fun-house of horror for a book,” that stung. It was never spoken of out loud but it was obvious to everyone how much Luke wanted to be a part of Little Nell’s life. “This family doesn’t need anymore tragedy, don’t make me tell Shirley about this.” 

As Luke and Steve were reeling from the weight of Leigh’s threat the tension was broken by the sudden cries of Little Nellie from her room. Steve was about to go take care of her himself but Leigh wordlessly asserted that she would do it and went up stairs.

“Well, that went about as bad as it could have,” Luke said, if only so they wouldn’t have to stew in awkward silence.

“I don’t know about that, my marriage is still intact and you’re still allowed in the house,” Luke chuckled grimly at that.

“So, is this the end of the Cool Kids?” Luke asked, Steve waved his hand dismissively.

“I doubt it, I’m sure if we give up on Winchester she’ll ease up about future outings,” Steve said as he began to absentmindedly flip through Luke’s notebook, which had been the original topic of the night before Leigh caught wind of their plans to return to the Mystery House. Steve paused when he made it to one of Luke’s drawings, one depicting the figure from his nightmare, “damn, Luke, that’s creepy. It’s good, don’t get me wrong but fuck, maybe Leigh’s right if this is what decided to haunt you.”

“Uh thanks, and maybe,” Luke never knew how to respond to compliments, especially loaded one’s like that.

“You know if we ever do get around to writing about Winchester we should include this. Remember how some books would have little illustrations at the start of chapters? We should bring that back.”

“Wow, I mean I agree but, can’t you get a professional to do it?” Like was taken aback, after so many years of his brother being perpetually disappointed in him, the mountains of praise were a welcome whiplash. 

“Luke, the only difference between an amateur and a professional is whether or not you’re getting paid for it, and this is pay grade worthy,” _If anything made me regret everything I did to this family, it’s things like this._

### 2

A few months after the Winchester Mansion debacle and Steve was proven right: Leigh was politely apathetic about Steve and Luke investigating another location. Luke was excited, despite his previous experience. Perhaps part of him assumed he had seen the worst of what other houses could bring already, and having survived Hill House he was ready for anything.

“Kind of a young one this time,” Steve told Luke over the phone, “it’s called uh… Schattenhaus Estate - probably saying that wrong - it was built by a German immigrant who went by Jonas Black in the late 20s.”

“Wait, late 20s? Isn’t that when-”

“The Nazis rose to power? Yep, that’s why he left, or so he said. In any case, Jonas did pretty well for himself in the States and eventually built himself a crazy mansion near a small town called Serenity in upstate New York.”

“Crazy like the Winchester place?”

“Bingo. The current owner says we can get in for an investigation as soon as next week. What do you say, bro?”

Luke and Steve had to stop in Serenity on their way to Schattenhaus Estate. Luke wasn’t sure if his prior knowledge of a nearby haunted mansion was painting his perception of the town, while people were out and about there seemed to be an air of melancholy hanging all throughout, and Luke noticed that the people either regarded them with dubious curiosity or not at all. Anytime Luke had gone into or through Hillsdale, the closest town to Hill House, the residents had treated him and his family similarly; but back then it was no secret that the Crains were living in and trying to fix up the dark old house up in the hills. _Did they know who we are too, or do they just take this poorly to strangers?_

In a short time they entered a modest bakery where they were supposed to meet a representative of the family that owns the estate. Several customers were seated at tables and having some late morning coffee with their freshly bought baked goods and only a few had bothered to pay any attention to the Crain brothers. Steve rang the old bell at the counter but it would be some time before anyone would come. Luke’s attentioned wandered around the bakery, trying to gage something about the owner from the interior, his mother had often said you can learn just about everything from a person from how their choice in decour, but he was distracted when he noticed one of the customers, a middle aged woman, was staring at them. Following their eyeline Luke could tell Steve was the object of their attention, and just as Luke was about to tap his brother on the shoulder the woman got up and approached them.

“Excuse me,” she said hesitantly, “I feel like I know you from somewhere, are you famous?” Steve chuckled and gave Luke a sideways glance as if to say ‘this happens all the time.’

“Steven Crain, I’m an author,” Steve said with surprising modesty.

“Ah yes, you wrote that Hill House book, I’ve read it,” she seemed pleased for having remembered that much at least, “who’s your friend?”

“I’m Luke, his brother,” Luke said, at which the woman’s face suddenly flushed with sympathy.

“The poor little boy in the dumbwaiter,” _Right, my claim to fame,_ Luke thought as he shot his brother a dirty look. “What brings you to Serenity, boys?” _You’re not that much older than us, lady._

“We’re actually here on business, we’re thinking of writing a book on Schattenhaus,” Steve explained, the woman chuckled and raised her eyebrows.

“Shadow house? Really? I didn’t think our little ghost story would attract such attention. Best of luck, no one in the town goes near that place. Just ten years ago some teenagers sneaked up there and no one’s seen them since,” she said, leaning in conspiratorially.

“Give it a rest, Margret,” said a young black woman coming from the back room, “they’re horror novelists, you’re gonna have to try harder if you want to scare them off.”

The woman smiled in an odd mix of frustration and feigned politeness, “oh, just trying to give them the old Serenity greeting. I best be off anyway, enjoy yourselves boys,” she said with a wink, and exited the bakery.

“That was normal,” Luke sardonically said under his breath.

“Sorry about her,” the woman from the back said, “anyway, I’m Aisha, you two must be the Crains. Come on back.

Luke and Steve followed Aisha into what seemed like some sort of quaint little break room. It was warm, in more senses than simply the temperature; it seemed as though they had stumbled into the one corner that hadn’t been touched by the town’s undefinable gloom. Luke dreaded that they wouldn’t be staying here long.

“So, you’re the owner of the house?” Luke asked.

“Eh, more like the heir, dear old gran is still kicking. Nearly a hundred and I don’t think I’ve seen her slow down all my life.”

“So we won’t be speaking with her?” Steve asked.

“Oh I’m sure she’ll introduce herself, she doesn’t much care for the business side of things.” Aisha said as she poured cups of coffee for them all. “I can’t imagine leaving a sunny California at this time of year, I don’t think the East coast got the message that it’s spring yet.”

“We grew up in Massachusetts, we’re used to it,” Luke said, smiling as he sipped his coffee.

“Speak for yourself.” Steve muttered.

From there the brothers and Aisha mostly spoke of rules and restrictions on what they’d be permitted to do while they stayed at the estate, and Luke mostly paid attention. His mind wandered, the unwelcoming nature of the town had reminded him of some stories Steve had shared with him when they were younger, stories about towns full of fish-people looking for human sacrifices to their deep sea gods. Luke tried to shunt the unbidden thoughts from his head, _it’s just an insular old town full of weirdos, nothing fishy about it._

“Alright, with that out of the way I’ll lead you up to the property.” Aisha’s words took Luke out of his thoughts. He looked at his watch and saw that he had been daydreaming for longer than he thought. 

Aisha went to get her car out of the back lot as the brothers went back to the street and waited in their rental.

“Are you alright, man?” Steve asked when they were situated.

“What? Yeah, I’m good.” 

“Are you sure? If this is too much you can back out. It’s not too late to find a motel or something in town if you’d rather hang back.” _Fuck no,_ Luke couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than staying in this weird town any longer.

“Nah I’m fine.” Luke said, Steve seemed satisfied with that. A moment later, Aisha pulled up from around the corner and the Crain brothers followed her; out of town and into a lightly wooded area. Luke’s subtle elation to be leaving Serenity proper slowly eroded as more unwanted thoughts rolled into his mind like fog, _let’s just hope I’m not leaping from the frying pan and into the fire._

### 3

There was something unmistakably wrong about Schattenhaus that was obvious to anyone at even a casual glance. It was three stories tall with each floor resembling a misshapen octagon haphazardly placed on top of the last, windows peppered the exterior walls without any discernible pattern and none were quite the same shape as any other. 

“Jesus Christ,” Luke said as the car came to a stop a few feet before the bizarre structure.

“I think this is gonna be a repeat of Winchester,” Steve said as he unbuckled himself, “another funhouse that messes with peoples’ heads.”

“Yeah,” Luke said, he knew his brother was probably right, “still though, who makes a house like this?”

“I think she might be able to tell us.” Steve said pointing. Luke turned his gaze to see that when he wasn’t looking an old woman with dark skin had appeared on the front porch. 

Aisha got out of her car and happily walked up to the woman and gave her a warm hug, as Luke and Steve approached the old woman put on a polite smile and went to shake their hands.

“You must be the Crain boys. I’m Gloria.”

“Steven, and this is Luke. Thanks again for letting us look around.” 

“Do you live here?” Luke asked, unsure whether or not he should already know the answer.

“Oh, no,” Gloria said with a chuckle, “I just drop in every now and again to make sure everything’s as it should be.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why’d you buy this place?”

“I didn’t buy it, it was something of a gift. It’s a bit of a story, come,” she said as she entered the house.

Upon entering Schattenhaus, Luke grew dubious of Gloria’s claim to ‘make sure everything’s as it should be.’ it appeared as though whoever built this had some sort of grudge against right angles and parallel lines as hallways seemed to be slanted and the ceiling looked to be perhaps a degree or too out of sync with the floor beneath it.

In a short time they were outside again and Luke saw before him a beautiful yet eerie garden filled with pale blue flowers, divided into four quadrants by intersecting cobblestone paths, Luke realized that this garden was contained by the house, like a courtyard in a castle. Everything seemed to be at rest here, even the air was still, one might find it relaxing if they could forget about the architectural monstrosity that surrounded it.

“I started working here for dear old Jonas back when the house was finished in ‘31,” Gloria said as she seated herself on the patio, “and I was only one of a handful who continued to do so for fifteen years. Me and Jonas got to know each other pretty well, why he once told me that I was his only friend, and I guess he meant it, because he left damn near all he had in this world to me in his will. Thanks to him I put my babies through college and haven’t had to work for a dime the rest of my life, so I figure I owe it to him to tidy up every once and awhile.”

There was a lot for Luke to take in, for one it was only now sinking in how old Gloria was, but she didn’t look _that_ old. More so he felt relaxed, _she’s spent nearly a century around this place, no one sticks around a dangerous house that long._

“I’d like to ask you a few questions about the estate itself, if you don’t mind.” Steve said, going into full investigator mode. “We did some digging into the history of this place before coming here,” _oh shit,_ Luke thought as he realized that he forgot to do that, “a lot of people in and around the area are convinced this place is haunted and even go so far as to link the estate to local disappearances, what do you make of these stories?” Gloria sat back in her chair and thought for a moment.

“Well, considering what happened to poor Jonas I can see why people would think that. As to the disappearances, sure some folks, usually kids, sometimes come to snoop around the place, I find their cigarettes on the porch sometimes but I don’t imagine they stay here very long, only my and my family have keys to get inside and there’s not much to do, unless you like gardening as much as I do that is.”

“So the kids that disappeared ten years ago?” Luke asked, unsure if it was ‘his turn’ to speak. Aisha gave a short laugh.

“Margret got to them before we met,” Aisha explained to her grandmother who seemed to instantly understand and shook her head, “yeah a teenage couple _did_ go missing, but they were runaways, not a month later someone found them in Albany.”

“Oh, nothing paranormal about that.” Luke said with a chuckle, Steve was amused as well but didn’t seem surprised.

After their talk Aisha showed them around the place and Luke saw that Schattenhaus was weirder than he gave it credit for. Every room had one or more mirrors, and sometimes walls would have little windows into the next room or the hallway. Anywhere you went the light danced off mirrors and through windows in such a way as to give anyone who walked within more than one shadow at all times, and though they were but his own silhouette Luke somehow felt as though the shadows were watching him. One room in particular caught Luke’s attention: it was on the north end of the house and instead of an exterior wall on the back there was one large window that allowed one to gaze down at the courtyard, and a single wooden chair sat in the center facing the door. 

“A bit sparse, huh?” Luke mused, at a loss for anything to say about the room despite how weird it was. 

“Well, anytime I’ve tried to put something in here or take out that chair it doesn’t stick.” Aisha said.

“What do you mean?” Steve asked.

“Well this one time I took the chair into another room but when I wasn’t looking it was gone, right back where I found it. And another time we thought to put some other furniture in here but the next day it was all piled up on the front lawn and that chair was right back in its favorite spot.”

“Any explanation for that?” Luke asked as he shared a curious glance with Steve.

“Not really, although, well it's not really connected but this is the room Jonas was found dead in.” 

_Why wouldn’t you lead with that?_

“He did like that room,” Gloria said, having joined them without anyone noticing, Luke jumped slightly but tried his best to hide his alarm, “I’m sorry to startle you, I just wanted to say that I’ll be taking off now, you boys have fun,” she said with a playful wink, “Aisha, would you be a dear and drive me home?”

### 4

The process of exploring and setting up Schattenhaus with all of Steve’s investigation equipment was as frustrating as it was unsettling. Luke began to wonder if this entire house was not just built as some sort of elaborate prank on him and anyone who might be tricked into thinking there was anything significant to be found here, supernatural or otherwise. Much like Winchester, the layout was labyrinthine and nonsensical, however Schattenhaus seemed as though it was built without any method to its madness, Luke’s “favorite” feature was the stairwell that connected the first and third floor with no access to the second.

Luke was happy to be done with setup but his relief was short lived as he saw the sun begin to sink below the horizon, the last gasps of sunlight playing off the multitudinous reflective surfaces and refractive lenses made his shadow twist and distort so much as to become unrecognizable; and though Luke tried to tell himself it was only some optical illusion, he could swear that sometimes the shadows moved on their own.

“I feel like I should apologize for all the shit I said about the Winchester place.” Luke said as he regrouped with Steve.

“No joke,” Steve said as he finished setting up a thermal camera in the room with the wide window and solitary chair, “any encounters or incidents on your end?”

“Hard to tell, nothing like Hill House at least,” Luke paused contemplating his next words carefully, “it _feels_ haunted, I know that’s not much but…” 

“It’s not nothing,” Steve said with a mix of concern and excitement, “by the way, I got some new gear for this job, check this out,” Steve pulled from one of the bags what almost looked like a walkie-talkie, “it’s called a spirit box.”

“Is that for EVP?” Luke asked.

“Sort of. It’s like that but in real time. What it does is it rapidly switches between radio frequencies creating a kind of white noise that, theoretically, ghosts can use to speak through,” Luke raised his eyebrow at this, even for him it seemed far fetched. Steve was undeterred though, “how about we try it out.”

Once they made sure the night vision and thermal cameras were working properly they got in position, Luke suggested that they put the box on the chair since it was allegedly a hotspot for activity. When Steve switched the device on a cacophony of choppy static suddenly erupted from the speaker.

“Jesus Christ, is it supposed to sound like that?” Luke asked, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the noise.

“Yeah, I think so,” Steve responded, sounding unsure.

“Cool, I hate it already.”

“Let’s start with the questions,” Steve opened the notepad app on his phone and began to read, “My name is Steven Crain, and this is my brother, Luke. Are there any spirits here with us?” he asked, only to be met with static, “is Jonas Black here, perhaps?” as Steve asked that, an unintelligible voice seemed to cut through the noise from the spirit box.

“Were those words?” Luke asked.

“I think it might have been something,” Steve said, face now alight with excitement, “was that a ‘yes?’” the voice once again broke through, this time Luke thought he understood something being said.

“I think it said ‘licked,’ the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Luke said with a chuckle, as though in response the box once again produced the sound of a garbled voice, though if it was speaking the brothers could make no sense of what was being said. “I’m not sure the ghost is speaking English,” Luke said as a joke but was then struck with a realization, and judging by Steve’s face it seemed he had it too, “Jonas was German, right?”

“Yeah, do you know any German?” Steve asked.

“No, but didn’t Shirl take it in high school?”

“I mean, yes, but Shirl isn’t here.”

“Right, I’ll see if I can get a hold of her,” Luke suggested, Steve nodded.

`‘How much German do you remember?’` Luke texted his eldest sister, who replied quicker than expected.

`‘A bit, why?’`

`‘What does “licked” mean?’`

`‘Do you mean “Licht?”’`

`‘Maybe?’`

`‘Pretty sure it means “light.” Mind if I ask what this is about?’`

`‘In a bit, see ya’` Luke put his phone away and turned back to his brother to relay to him what Shirley had said.

“‘Light?' That seems kinda random,” Steve replied, “what about light?” he asked the box, which just continued to spew garbled noise back at them, “figures,” Steve said in a defeated tone as he turned the box off. 

“I mean that’s something, I think,” Luke said in an attempt to be encouraging. Steve shrugged in response.

“It’s more than I expected but less than I hoped.”

With that done they decided it was time for patrols, they’d take alternating four-hour shifts between sleeping and roaming the halls with a camcorder in the hopes of catching something paranormal on camera. Luke volunteered to go first, mostly because he wasn’t tired and eight o’clock seemed early to go to bed, _is that something you do after you turn forty?_ Luke did not have many opportunities to ponder the effects of aging on one’s sleeping habits though as the house, it seemed, would not be ignored. 

With the nearly full moon sailing across the starry sky the shadows danced in ways that defied everything Luke knew to be normal. The silhouettes of inanimate features of the house seemed to move on their own at the edges of perception, Luke’s own shadows twisted into other forms before his very eyes to become taller or shorter and at times seemed to belong to someone else entirely. Luke loosely maintained a veneer of courage, dedicated to capture whatever might happen, and so far he could tell nothing he had seen so far was anything that couldn’t be explained by the tricks of a fearful mind. When his cell phone buzzed in his pocket sometime past eleven he practically jumped into the ceiling. He counted to seven to calm himself before checking his phone, Shirley had texted him. _Shit, I left her hanging for a while now._

`‘So are you going to explain the request for an impromptu German lesson anytime soon?’`

`‘I’m helping Steve with his writing, he had a recording of something speaking German and that was the only thing we could make out’` _a harmless bending of the truth,_ he tried to tell himself.

`‘Weird. I still can’t believe he does that, doesn’t it seem a bit reckless given our track record don't you think?’` _I am **painfully** aware, yes._

`‘Shirl, you work with dead bodies, if anyone’s asking to be cursed it’s you’` he deflected.

`‘Touché. In any case we should touch base another time, goodnight.’` with heart emoji at the end, _Living on the wild side, I see,_ Luke was about to type his response before he was startled by the sudden blare of choppy static.

After regaining his composure Luke went around the corner to find the spirit box laying on the hallway floor just beyond the threshold of the chair room. As he made to retrieve the box he peeked into the chair room to see if Steve was hiding within and this was all some dumb joke of his, but it wasn’t what was in the room that shocked him, rather what wasn’t: the cameras. _That’s not possible, I passed this room a half hour ago and they were right there._ As Luke was reeling from this impossibility he started hearing something strange from the spirit box.

“Luke?” Steve said to him as he approached, “What are you doing with the spirit box?”

“It was just on the floor here, what are you doing up? Did you move the cameras?”

“I was just coming to tell you that your shift is over, and then I heard a crash from somewhere - outside I think - and then the spirit box. So no I haven’t touched the cameras,” Steve looked into the room, “where the fuck…?

“Wait,” Luke said, an idea coming to mind, “you don’t think they might be…?”

Steve seemed to get the idea and rushed towards the main entrance, Luke following not far behind. When they reached their destination Steve threw open the doors to find, to their amazement, the cameras they put in the chair room lying on the front porch.

### 5

When they watched the footage from the displaced cameras there was no mistaking what happened: some unaccounted for entity moved them. Everything seems normal right up until midnight when suddenly the footage becomes distorted for a few seconds before revealing their new location. Steve was near ecstatic about the finding and Luke did his best to match his excitement while hiding his own anxiety regarding the things he saw and heard, still he agreed that they should ask Gloria for one more night. Luke withheld the information that the spirit box had sent him a fairly clear message out of fear that it might cause his brother to reconsider, which was something he both did and did not want.

“We’re only asking to stay until tomorrow morning, but if it can’t be done we completely understand,” Steve implored to Gloria as she tended to the flowers in the courtyard garden. 

“Find something good?” She asked with a smile.

“You bet, we’d just like to get a bit more of it documented and then we’d really be cooking.”

“I don’t see why not then, all I ask in return is that one of you help me do a bit of gardening.” 

“Gladly! Thank you so much, Ms. Freeman. I need to call Leigh and change our flight plan, back in a bit,” Luke nodded in agreement as Steve went to the porch.

Luke hadn’t worked in a garden like this in a long while, not since Hill House as far as he could recall. Sometimes he and Nell would help their mother in the gardens, he often complained that he would rather help Steve and their father with the heavy lifting but in retrospect he’s glad for every second he got to spend with Nell and his mother, back when she was still who he remembered her to be. To that day he sometimes felt the poison coursing through him when he saw anything scarlet.

“So what kind of guy was Jonas?” Luke asked Gloria, attempting to get his mind off Hill House.

“Strange, but kind, very kind indeed. Why, half the reason I stuck around long as I did was because he was the only one who would pay people of color as well as white folk back in the day, sometimes better, in my case at least,” Gloria said with a wink, “he was a troubled sort though, I think anyone who knew him could tell you that.”

“Any idea what bothered him?”

“Not for certain, I suspect it has to do with the family he left behind in Germany. His father supported the Nazis, you see, and Jonas took issue with that. I don’t know if he was forced out or if he left on his own, but I could tell from the way he talked about them it weighed on his mind, even to his dying day.”

“Speaking of that,” Luke began, hesitantly, thinking through his words carefully, “I’m not quite the researcher my brother is. If you don’t mind me asking, how did he die?” 

“It was ruled a suicide, but it’s not as simple as that,” Gloria said, “you see, one day I come to the house and I go about my business but I don’t see hide nor hair of him all day. I asked the other staff if they knew where he was but no one had a clue. A month goes by without any trace of him and then one day, I find him, sitting in that room,” she said as she pointed to the wide window of the chair room, “throat slashed open.”

“Jesus Christ…” was all Luke could manage to say.

“The strangest part though, the coroner said he didn’t die the night before. Far as he could tell he was dead for at least a week when he was found.” 

Luke was at a loss for words, but was saved when Steve rejoined them and shifted the topic.

“Well, Leigh wasn’t very happy at first but when I convinced her it was just some poltergeist action she was amiable. Anyway, how can I help?”

Conversation was much more mundane from then on, Luke did not participate much for he was still reeling from the tale Gloria had told him. He almost felt he should ask more but didn’t, partially because he did not know what to ask and partially because he wasn’t sure he wanted to know anymore than he already did. It was one thing to read about a place's tragic history online and another to hear about it from a first-hand witness. The rest of the day was much like the last, little to remark upon aside from restless shadows that Luke couldn’t quite get used to. Steve wanted to take the first shift this night which Luke agreed to, even if it only meant prolonging the inevitable. 

When eight o’clock rolled around Luke retired to the guest room as he lay in bed bathed in the light of the full moon he had time to regret coming here. As the hours ticked by Luke couldn’t help but be mesmerized by how the shadows played across the ceiling and amused himself by finding patterns in them. At times he saw flowers, sometimes he could swear he saw animals, but more and more as the light shifted he began to see people. The silhouettes began to assume familiar forms. Luke’s attempt to recognize the silhouettes was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and shutting. _Is that Steve?_ Luke checked his phone and saw that it was about a minute to midnight. _Close to a shift change, might as well see what he’s up to._ Luke got up and made his way to the staircase that leads from the third to the first floor. Out of morbid curiosity he decided to peak into the chair room on his way and noticed something odd: somebody’s wallet was just on the floor a few feet in front of the chair. Luke went over and picked it up to investigate, it was Steve’s. Suddenly the moonlight began to rapidly increase in luminosity, so much as to become unbearable. Luke shielded his eyes and yet he could still feel the lunar light attempting to sear his eyes, and then, as quickly as it had come, the light dimmed back to normal.

As Luke’s eyes readjusted, he realized that he must have dropped Steve’s wallet, the thought left his mind soon though when he saw that he was no longer alone. Sitting limply in the chair was the figure of a man, a deep wound in his neck glistening in the light. 

“Holy fucking shit, Luke, you’re not going to believe what I just saw!” Steve shouted as he entered the house.

_I think I got you beat,_ Luke wanted to reply but fear had stolen his voice. Suddenly the corpse-like thing before Luke began to move, awkwardly, as though it was relearning how to flex its muscles. Its eyes opened and radiated the same pale light as the moon. _No no no no no._ Everything began to click, that dream that he tried so hard to forget was coming true.

“Luke? Bro, where are you?” Steve called.

“H-here, the chair room!” Luke weakly replied, “Come quick, please.”

The figure's head swiveled and as it seemed to gasp, creating a sickening whistle as air slipped through the wound in its neck. _Run, you should be running, why aren’t you running?_ The thing’s eyes seemed to lock with Luke’s and to his horror its mouth began to move, to speak.

“... dich… gewarnt… I tried… to warn you…” it rasped.

“Luke?” Steve called again, Luke turned to see his brother peering into the room from the hall

“Steve, fuck, are you seeing this?” Luke said, voice shaking, but then he noticed that his brother wasn’t looking at him or the corpse in the chair, and was instead scanning the room, “Steve?” Luke said again, but was either ignored or, somehow, unheard. Luke noticed that Steve had a camcorder in one hand and his wallet in the other, and then, to Luke’s dismay, Steve moved on down the hall and continued to shout for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading! I've had this rattling around in my head for a while but I wanted to make sure I got this chapter right. Third chapter will be out when it's ready but I'll try to make the gap shorter this time!


	3. Selbst und Schatten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke finds himself invisible to Steve, but soon draws the attention of something else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The finale to my second-ever fic, I hope it lives up to any hype it might have generated. Enjoy!

### 1

Luke began to panic as he followed his brother through the moonlit halls of Schattenhaus Estate, desperately trying to be noticed. He screamed and jumped and waved his hand right in Steve’s face to no avail. In a mix of frustration and desperation he tried to shove Steve, but his hands went right through as though he was a ghost. _No, I’m alive! Aren’t I?_ Luke’s spirit lifted when he saw Steve pull out his phone and call him, perhaps technology would save him, but his phone never rang and he heard the call go straight to voicemail.

“Hey, Luke, it’s Steve. If you’re trying to pull a prank or something I gotta say your timing is awful. Call me back when you get this,” Steve hung up and continued to search the twisted mansion. 

Luke made to follow but noticed that one of Steve’s many shadows was moving in a bizarre way. It had seemed to become three dimensional, and Luke was in the process of telling himself that he was just seeing things when shadow stepped off the wall and blocked his path. Luke froze as the dark simulacra of his brother opened its eyes, spilling moonlight from them much like the corpse in the chair room. It grinned at him with teeth like obsidian.

“You know you have only yourself to blame for this, right?” the inky doppelganger asked Luke in Steve’s voice.

“What the fuck are you?” Luke demanded, trying to sound brave but the shake in his voice betrayed him, the living shadow shook its head.

“You should ask more questions about yourself,” the thing said venomously, “how can you live with yourself after everything you’ve done to me?”

“You’re not Steve.”

“I’m a good brother. I put up with all your nonsense about the Bowler Hat Man and Abigail, I was practically a parent to you and Nellie when we went to live with Aunt Janet, but you fucked me anyway.”

“Shut up.”

“I stuck up for you so many times, whether it was getting caught drinking or smoking pot in high school, Hell I was even on your side when you stole from dad,” the shadow stretched, beginning to tower over Luke, “then you fell on the harder stuff, started sticking needles in your arm. And then I guess you decided you didn’t care about me.”

“You know it wasn’t like that,” Luke said, trying not to believe the awful thing before him.

“You stole from me and Leigh, even before I had my big break you took anything you could from me to feed your habit. I gave you so many chances, we all did, and you threw them all into a needle, because you didn’t want our help, you didn’t want us,” suddenly the shadowy replica of Steve split into three, one of the duplicates shifted to the silhouette of Shirly and the other Theo, and the triad surrounded him.

“Are you worth the thousands of dollars I wasted on rehab for you?” asked the shadow of Shirley.

“Are you worth letting my guard down?” asked the shadow of Theo.

“Are you even worth the air you breathe?” asked the shadow of Steve.

The shadows continued to ask Luke questions, questions he couldn’t bear to think about let alone answer. He covered his ears and ran, he no longer cared about getting his brother’s attention, he just needed to get away. In his panic he couldn’t remember the way back to the front door, the cruel geometry of the house nearly tripped him and the glowing-eyed shadows would sometimes appear in his intended path, forcing him to double back and find a new route. After what felt like an eternity, Luke found the front door and was filled with hope. Despite his exhaustion and sore legs he mustered the strength and bolted to it, slamming into it as he opened it, collapsing once outside and taking a moment to catch his breath. 

“One, two, three, four five, six, seven;” he counted out loud through his panting, “one, two, three, four five, six, seven; One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;” he counted several more times before he felt calm enough to stop.

Once he collected himself he rose to his feet and looked for the rental car, but was perplexed to see not the front lawn of the estate but rather the courtyard garden. _I must have gotten mixed up,_ he thought, trying to think rationally, _that’s fine, I know the front door is on the other side of the hall,_ just gotta be quick. After another moment to steady his breathing he swung the door open and sprinted across the hall. He counted himself lucky when he reached the other door without seeing the strange shadowy clones of his elder siblings. Luke grabbed the handle and practically leaped through, but what he saw only filled him with despair, he was once again in the garden.

### 2

The shadow entities did not pursue Luke at all times, though they were never far from sight. They never spoke during the daytime, though Luke had other things to worry about in those hours. In the morning after he became trapped in this invisible realm he had to watch his brother panic and worry over him. Steve explained the situation to Gloria and Aisha, after which he had no choice but to call the police to report Luke missing, after that Steve called Shirley.

“Are you fucking serious, Steve?” Shirley yelled, loud enough that Steve recoiled from the phone.

“It was two nights in a place that has absolutely _nothing_ to do with us, how the hell was I supposed to guess something like this would happen?” Steve said.

“What possibly made you think this was a good idea?”

“It was Luke’s idea! And for the record- Look, let’s just hope he got lost in the woods or something, he’s an adult I’m sure he has a good reason for up and leaving in the middle of the night.”

“And what if this is something _else?_ What if it’s, y’know, that house?”

“The most the house has done is move some of my equipment around, snatching somebody out of existence seems like a wild escalation. Either way I'm not leaving him behind.”

When Steve had finished talking to Shirley he called Theo but Luke couldn’t bear to listen. That evening as the sun dipped below the horizon the shady duplicates of his older siblings kept their distance but began to whisper to each other just loud enough for him to hear but not make out what they were saying. Luke entered a random room in hopes the heavy wooden door would dampen the sound of their gossiping. As Luke relaxed he began to realize how exhausted he was and leaned against the wall. 

“He’s sweeter than I remember,” a familiar voice said from somewhere within the room, “a bit rough around the edges but he sure has a soft spot for you,” Luke looked to see another shadow had freed itself from the wall opposite him. It didn’t take him long to recognize its likeness.

“Joey,” Luke said in disbelief, he shook his head, “no, I know you’re not here.”

“I could be,” the figure said with a nonchalant shrug, “you never did find me. You didn’t even look that hard did ya?”

“You’re the one that disappeared on me,” Luke said.

“I told you not to follow, I was pretty fucking clear about that I thought, but you decided to be a big damn hero. That’s little Luke to a T, isn’t it? You always want to try and help despite having nothing to offer.”

“You stole from me.”

“You don’t have the right to be mad about that,” the thing said, laughing, “you could be the king of thieves. And what did you think was going to happen? I was a junkie who just relapsed and you waved a wad of cash in my face, would you have done differently?” Luke wanted to refute the figure but wasn’t sure it was wrong, “All you did was make things worse for everybody, like always. You put me in more danger when you came to find me, you put your family in more danger when you tried to destroy Hill House, and now, you’ve caused who knows how much trouble for Steve, all because you wanted to ‘help’ with his writing. Even if your heart’s in the right place, you’re too stupid to do any good, you’re worse than useless - you just fuck everything up more,” Luke got up and left the room hurriedly despite his muscle’s protest, he couldn’t bare listen, he didn’t want to think about the things this Joey was saying.

Despite only getting up to a light jog Like was winded after only a minute. He collapsed in the hall, his body unable to push itself anymore. As he lay limply on the floor, his consciousness slowly fading, the shadowy likeness of Joey knelt down and looked him in the eye, “that’s right, just drift away now, Luke, that’s probably best for everyone.”

### 3

As days went by Luke eventually noticed all the colors gradually disappearing, leaving the world around him a miserable, muted version of itself. The shadows didn’t talk as much anymore, they just stared at him with those luminous pale eyes that could at times be filled with anything from sadistic joy to sheer disgust. Time was beginning to lose its meaning with only the changing face of the moon to tell him it was still passing; he began to wonder if this is how Nellie felt.

On the night of the new moon the house was well and truly dark for the first time, the pale eyes of the stalking shadows were dim but not truly gone. Luke began to think that the specters had run out of things to say to him, they rarely even whispered amongst each other anymore but they would not leave him be. He decided to go into the garden on this moonless night and lay among the flowers. Though he felt himself wasting away from hunger and thirst and the sky had barely any color left, he couldn’t help but be transfixed by the beautiful vista of stars above him and drifted peacefully into sleep.

The moment of serenity was not to last. Some time later, Luke woke up but found that he could do little else beyond move his eyes, no matter how much he tried he could not move a muscle in his body. His eyes darted around, trying to find a friendly face before he remembered his situation, his despair grew as his gaze turned upward. Floating above and parallel to him was the silhouette of a woman in a nightgown with long hair, and her neck bent at an unnatural angle. _Not her, fuck you, anyone but her,_ he thought in vain, unable to voice his pleading.

“Miss me?” it said in Nellie’s voice, all Luke could manage to respond with was a grunt in a mix of terror and fury, _don’t,_ he thought before the thing continued, “I always resented that you didn’t have to put up with this. You’d think the twin thing would kick in but no, you’re just lucky I guess. How does it feel to have no control, to sit by and watch awful things happen around you and feel powerless to do anything? You all found things that helped you avoid looking at it, your’s has to be the shittiest though. I felt the first time you shot up. Bet you didn’t think of that. How nice it must be to be able to magically make yourself feel better by poisoning yourself stupid.”

_Please no, God, just go,_ Luke wanted to say as feeling returned to his limbs, though he could only slightly curl his fingers.

“All I needed was for you to be there for me, you promised that you wouldn’t let anything happen to me, you said you wouldn’t bullshit me but you still used me and ignored me. I guess it was worth it though, two years clean. But how long will that last? We both know you’re one bad day from using again, you’d be using right now if you could. You’re not strong enough to love anyone because that would mean loving yourself, and you don’t even want to _think_ about yourself.”

“Wh… What do you want.. From me then?” Luke gasped out.

“Follow me,” the dangling shadow said, its hand gently caressing Luke’s neck, “end it so that you don’t hurt anyone more than you already have.”

“Nellie would never say something like that!” Luke rasped, wanting to yell but lacking the control.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t say it, I was too nice for that, but are you sure I wouldn’t think it? We both know it’s what you deserve.” 

Luke gained control of his body and lurched up. The figments of Nellie and the other’s were gone and he was truly by himself for once. He screamed out to the stars, a long painful wail that gave way to sobs and tears.

### 4

The moon was full again and casting it’s sickly pale light through the great window of the chair room, Luke, seated in the chair, looked at his shadow as it branched unnaturally into five separate entities. He held a knife with an obsidian blade in his hands, he could not recall how he got it, or when he seated himself in this chair for the matter, but he knew what he had to do. He was almost proud of himself for how long he held out for, but he could no longer exist sanely with the words of the shadows swimming in his mind. _They’re painful but true,_ he thought as he gazed into the black-glass blade he held, _this is the only way,_ he could see his reflection in the flat of the blade, he was briefly amused by that for reasons he did not understand, but amusement twisted to puzzlement as he notice that there was something behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see yet another shadow person behind him, but he did not recognize this one’s silhouette.

“Who are you supposed to be?” Luke asked.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” the shadow responded, it was a woman’s voice but for the life of him he couldn’t say whose, “you don’t look like the pictures.”

“What,” Luke asked, growing more confused, “seriously who - what are you?”

“Well,” the thing said as it began to wander around the room, “I want to say that I’m the regret of your life, but you weren’t actually alive long enough to regret anything.”

“I don’t even know who you are.”

“You didn’t give yourself the chance to learn.”

“Then why are you here?” Luke demanded, growing frustrated.

“It would’ve eaten you up inside if you could see what happened to me, to everyone,” Luke was about to interject when he was cut off himself by the sound of the front door opening. 

“Luke?” Steve’s voice called out. Soon after Steve, the real one, was in the doorway of the chair room carrying a duffle bag.

“Wow, I didn’t think he ever looked that put together his whole life,” the mysterious specter said and Steve walked into the room and began taking things out of the bag.

“You know Steve?” Luke asked.

“Hardly,” the shadow said, turning its attention back to Luke, “mom wasn’t very generous with visitation. I think I learned more about him at his funeral than the rest of my life.”

“Little Nell…” Luke said, dumbfounded by the realization.

“Luke? You’re still here, aren’t you?” Steve said in a raised voice as he finished setting up a thermal camera, “Call me crazy but I haven’t given up on you yet. You wouldn’t run away, not for this long for sure. If you’re here I’m going to find you.”

“You killed the fire in him tonight,” the shadow of his niece said, “he found you, but he was too late, and it broke him. Him and the whole family,” a storm of white noise filled the air as Steve turned the spirit box on.

“Sorry bud, I know you hate this but I’m running out of options,” Steve said with desperation in his tone.

“Aunt Shirly and aunt Theo stopped talking to him after your funeral,” the shadow continued, “at his funeral they acted like total strangers to each other, too. Mom sometimes talked about you, but usually just to warn me to not be like you, or dad.”

“Luke are you here? Can you say something? Anything?” Steve asked.

“I’m here!” Luke shouted, the static of the spirit box giving way to half of his statement.

“What’s that? Luke was that you?” Steve said, a cautious hope filling him.

“I’m here! I’m here!” Luke shouted again, barely breaking through the static, “you need to get out! I don’t want you trapped in here too!”

“What? ‘Get out?’ Not without you, I can’t lose you, man!”

“Before midnight,” Luke said, coming to a sudden realization, looking back at the full moon in horror, “you have to get out of the house before midnight or this fucking place will swallow you up!”

“What about you?”

“I’ll get out, I promise! You just have to get out now!”

“I love you, Luke.”

“I love you, too.”

Steve, teary eyed, switched the box off and ran out of the room and then the house. The shadows of his siblings and Joey moved in on him with fury in their glowing eyes.

“You can’t do this!” said the shadow of Steve, “you’ll just make everything worse!”

“Every time you try to help you just hurt us!” the shadow of Joey said.

“You’re too selfish to make a difference!” the shadow of Nellie said

“I can’t fuck things up worse than I already did,” Luke said, looking at the shadow of Little Nell, “dying here, leaving them all behind, **that** would be the selfish thing to do.”

“You only think that because you feel guilty,” the shadows of Shirley and Theo said in unison, “you don’t care about them, you just want a clean conscience!”

“It might be inevitable,” the shadow of Nellie said, “you might as well end it here.”

“No, even if you’re right, I have to try,” Luke retorted, “I don’t want to ruin what’s left of my family, I don’t Little Nell to grow up in a broken home, I don’t want Steve to die alone!”

“What do you want?” asked the shadow of Little Nell.

Luke rose from the chair, knocking it over, and answered, “I want to live!” There was a flash of bright moonlight and for a moment Luke felt weightless, and the next thing he knew he was falling onto wood, “ow, fuck,” Luke weezed as he reeled from the impact, in too much pain to open his eyes.

“Luke!” Steve called as he rushed over to Luke’s side, “holy shit, you’re alive, oh my fucking lord!” he embraced Luke. Luke might have complained about the pain if he wasn’t so grateful to touch another person again.

“Hey, Stevie,” Luke rasped as he opened his eyes and saw that he was outside, on the front porch, “I think this place is haunted.”

### 5 - One Year Later

“My brother once said of fear, ‘we yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway,’ some have said that fear lies within the unknown, but Schattenhaus taught me that we carry what we fear most within us every second of every day, and in so doing forced me to face the parts of myself I didn’t want to see. Whatever earthbound spirits may linger in the twisted halls of Schattenhaus Estate, the most haunting things will always be what we bring inside with us.”

Luke closed the book and stared at the cover for a small moment, ‘THE HAUNTING OF SHATTENHAUS ESTATE, by LUKE CRAIN,’ it was still surreal to him that this was even happening, he looked to the small crowd of people who had come to the reading, “thank you,” he said earnestly.

The crowd clapped politely, it was a library after all. The Crain siblings, however, tossed aside decorum and stood up as they applauded. Luke blushed in joyus embarrassment, he wasn’t surprised to see them there, he invited them after all, but this was a bit much if you asked him. The rest of the crowd followed his siblings’ lead into a quiet but enthusiastic standing ovation. He smiled and laughed more merrily than he had in years. He felt a hand lightly pat him on the back, he looked over and saw Nellie there, smiling back at him brightly.

“Congratulations,” she said softly. 

“Thanks, Nellie,” he said in a hushed voice before turning back to his other siblings and the crowd, “thank you all so much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was heavily Ironic to write in the current stat of the world but you'll have to take my word for it when I say the timing was a coincidence.  
> I hope you enjoyed this ride. It was hard to write as I put a lot of my own mental struggles in here. If you relate to the self-loathing: A) I'm sorry, B) I hope you found it cathartic.  
> If I make another work in this series it'll focus on Shirley and/or Theo because I love them and feel bad for not being able to include them in my previous fics.  
> Thank you for reading, you mean the world to me.

**Author's Note:**

> Second fic, same fandom, what's up? Seems like I also can't escape Hill House.  
> Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks for reading!


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